Narrating US–Iran History without “Seeing like a State”

This presentation will draw on two chapters of my book manuscript on the history of US-Iran relations. I will focus on the major historiographical controversies pertaining to the period between 1943, when the US joined the occupation of Iran, and the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Methodologically, I try not to “see like a state,” being aware that states attempt to shape the historical framework through which their citizens understand international affairs. Specifically, I start with the related debates on the wartime occupation and the origins of the Cold War in mid-1940s Iran, noting the pattern of the US forging ever-deeper military ties with Iran, which I deem the foundation of the US relationship with Pahlavi Iran. I argue that the nature of the shah's dependency on the United States changed from its 1940s-1950s origins, including the crucial juncture of the 1953 CIA coup, when US presidents told the Shah what to do, to a period of the Shah’s relative autonomy in the 1960s and early 1970s. Finally, there was the tragic finale during the revolution of 1979 when President Carter told the Shah to vacate his throne. The last major historiographical controversy I revisit is the question of US involvement in the Iranian Revolution and its relations with the Islamic Republic, going from initial cold cordiality to deep enmity. The fracture began with the Hostage Crisis of 1979-81, which the Islamic Republic undertook for domestic power consolidation, but led to enormously costly repercussions lasting to the present. Finally, and connecting to other session presentations, I will mention this period’s people-to-people interactions, most constructively taking place in the area of education, with tens of thousands of Iranian students in the US and several thousand Americans, led by the Peace Corps, living and teaching in Iran.